What is sick for me, is that I like the looks. It is really different and seems like it should fit into deep space somewhere. I just wish they had used different dacs but who knows. I look forward to the reviews. The price though, would love to see one in person.

For me the style is...well Picasso and a Klingon walked into a bar............. The 'Klingon" style was designed in the late 80's so from that point of view is dated and nothing new. Pity they did not stay with the restraint and integrity of AK100.

I know aesthetics is subjective but I think it looks like alianware which as an Industrial Designer I think is appealing to adolescents and not real grown up. I am sure they did it to make it appear smaller with the PCB being the full width of the player and they tried to hide the size with this 3D parallelogram device. It has sharp points which will be prone to wear. To be honest I think it is butt ugly and pretentious. Dont like it at all.

One BIG feature for me that the AK120 has is the footprint, I can put in my shirt pocket without it dropping and looking like I'm carrying rocks around. Hmmmm, the stirring just stopped, gotta do more homework.

So for something that is meant to be about the best sound they could have gotten rid of the useless large screen and used the real estate for a bigger battery and kept the Wolfsons. I would have happily traded even the screen on my 120 for better performance, after all, do we really need full colour images, I know my screens stays on a few seconds then goes out as I have set it up so.

I think you seriously over estimate the amount of real estate a screen takes up. Having replaced my fair share of screens I can assure you that they are so thin that they won't take away any battery space. The carbon fiber back is probably thicker than the screen.

So for something that is meant to be about the best sound they could have gotten rid of the useless large screen and used the real estate for a bigger battery and kept the Wolfsons. I would have happily traded even the screen on my 120 for better performance, after all, do we really need full colour images, I know my screens stays on a few seconds then goes out as I have set it up so.

I think you seriously over estimate the amount of real estate a screen takes up. Having replaced my fair share of screens I can assure you that they are so thin that they won't take away any battery space. The carbon fiber back is probably thicker than the screen.

Personally, I wouldn't think so much about real estate being used as much as the extra battery it takes to light that bigger screen. Said battery life could be purposed for "better" DACs instead, perhaps. Just a thought

Personally, I wouldn't think so much about real estate being used as much as the extra battery it takes to light that bigger screen. Said battery life could be purposed for "better" DACs instead, perhaps. Just a thought

That's an advantage the AK240 has with it's AMOLED screen. AMOLED screens automatically save battery by not turning on the pixels that are black so they don't use up as much battery as a typical LED screen.

More importantly said battery life being saved from a screen half the size is insignificant in comparison to the amount of battery being used by a 'better' DAC, after all just 1 upgraded Wolfson DAC causes the AK120 to lose 2 hours battery life compared to stock. Also consider how most of the time your screen is blank in your pocket not using up any more battery then a screen half its size.

As far as the AK240 line out implementation, unless there is some internal switching going on (solid state or relay based) that actually bypasses the headphone amp, AND somehow they configure the dac to bypass the input from the digital volume control at the same time, then I suspect that it really is a "pseudo line out." Meaning the volume is set to max and locked via software, and the signal is still going through the headphone output stage. I'm sure this will be clarified by A&K at some point. I'll be taking a peek to see what is going on.

In the settings menu there's a toggle to enable line out. Any idea if this does anything to bypass the internal amp???

Just on the screen size - some are suggesting iRiver should have stayed with a small screen - the AK240 screen may be marginally bigger than that on the AK100 / AK120, but it's still only a 3.3" screen, so it's a moot point. If you look carefully, and eliminate the bizarre staggered styling, and the relatively large bezel, the screen itself is pretty darned small, just like on the Cowon J3. The squashed isometric illusion design just fools the eye into assuming the screen is much larger than it really is.

And for me seeking the purist form of sound reproduction in a portable the WiFi, Android large screen is an expensive put off. I mean, come on, is it really necessary in a purist design meant to be about sound quality?
I think it is these features, the chip set and the large screen that is going to save me from making a rash purchase and stick with what I have got. I have already heard from one friend who heard it at vegas that the increase in macro dynamics and soundstage over the 120 is something I can achieve simply by plugging in my 120 to my TU-05.

I think if you like the features this player has got great, enjoy them. I just wish they had brought out a stripped down purist design with small screen, large battery and the two power eating Wolfson chips, now that I would not have been able to resist! As it is some major and expensive features would be just wasted on me with the 240.